One Dead in Manhattan High-Rise Blaze

Flames and smoke emerge from the 20th floor of the Strand apartment building near Times Square on Sunday. Authorities say two people have been critically injured.

A 27-year-old man was killed and several people injured when a fire broke out Sunday inside a Midtown high-rise building, Fire Department of New York officials said.

The fire started on the 20th floor of a high rise building on the corner of West 43rd Street and 10th Avenue at about 11 a.m., said Assistant Fire Chief John Sudnik. The apartment’s tenant had stepped out to go to the store and wasn’t home at the time, he said.

Flames and smoke emerge from the 20th floor of the Strand apartment building near Midtown on Sunday. Ramsay de Give for The Wall Street Journal

It took almost two hours for about 150 firefighters to get the blaze under control, said Mr. Sudnik. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The dead victim, identified as Daniel McClung, died Sunday evening after being rushed to Roosevelt Hospital in cardiac arrest. He was found in a stairwell near the 31st floor with another 32-year-old man, who was in serious but stable condition at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital after suffering burns, officials said. Others were treated for smoke inhalation and burns.

Nydia Cruz lived several floors below the burning apartment and was alerted to the fire by debris falling past her window.

“Pieces were falling down that were burning,” she said. “You couldn’t even tell what it was–it was just big chunks of something.”

Javier Morgado

Michael Cohen, left, and Daniel McClung at their wedding in Boston July 13th, 2013.

Boyd Olden, 32 years old, tried to escape from the building’s health club on the top floor where he works as a lifeguard. He tried to walk down the stairs with a co-worker and another man but was stopped by heavy smoke. The group waited on the balcony for more than an hour for firefighters to rescue them.

“We seen smoke, which I thought was fog because it’s foggy that high up. We heard the ding, ding, ding from the fire alarm,” Mr. Olden said. “It was terrible. I literally seen my life flash before my eyes.”